It’s amazing how much you can learn from just one conversation! My interview with Mrs. Chiolan, my old elementary school teacher, opened my eyes so much to what kind of writing teachers do. And as a student pursuing a career as a teacher, I found this information incredibly valuable. I never knew how much writing teachers do and for a variety of purposes and audiences. The kinds of writing that Mrs. Chiolan does ranges from the everyday simple email, to children evaluations, and everything in between. During the summers, she writes out her lesson plan for the school year and revised them from time to time during the year. Mrs. Chiolan also writes her own tests for certain subjects. Along with writing the plans and tests, she writes letters to parents and comments on report cards. She then jokingly told me that the worst kind of writing that she does is write up slips when children misbehave. I had to agree with her on that. She said that she luckily doesn’t have to write those on the daily though. On the average day, she usually writes emails and little reminders to herself about things that happened during the day or what is happening tomorrow. The purposes for which Mrs. Chiolan writes surprised me a bit. I assumed that teachers wrote for planning purposes, like the lesson plans. I also knew they wrote for communication purposes. She told me that writing is a fantastic tool to keep in touch with the principle, other teachers, and parents. But I did not think about the fact that teachers use writing to show progress in students. Evaluations and report cards are both extremely important forms of writing that teachers do. It is a clear way to show a child’s growth over the year and I didn’t even take that into consideration. The audiences that Mrs. Chiolan writes for is vast. She has to know how to write in a way that children will understand. Using very simple and clear sentences for tests and on the board is more challenging than you may think she informed me. You have to make sure that they will be able to understand what they’re reading. Also, writing to parents and principles takes a more formal writing style. With all of these audience, a teacher has to master ways to write to all of them. It sounds trickier than I originally thought. Mrs. Chiolan told me that writing was always a passion of hers. So when she gets the chance to put her words on paper, it is thrilling. She even told me that she was an English major in college for a little while. I never knew that she enjoyed writing so much and it really made me think about how much I enjoy writing too. The research article that Mrs. Chiolan told me that she admired was one that she read recently. It’s about students who struggle with reading and why. The article also suggests ways to improve a child’s reading, like read-alouds. She stumbled upon it while she was looking on Google for ways to help her student’s reading skills and found that this article was quite helpful and interesting. After my interview with Mrs. Chiolan, I realized that a lot more writing goes into teaching than I thought. I now know that it is an area that I need to be strong in if I want to be successful in the education field. I will be writing for a multitude of purposes, like planning, communication, and evaluation. As well as for a number of audiences, like students, parents, and co-workers and bosses. I am inspired by Mrs. Chiolan and all that she does and I hope that one day I can be as good of a teacher, and a writer, as she is.
January 10, 2013
Interview Essay
It’s amazing how much you can learn from just one conversation! My interview with Mrs. Chiolan, my old elementary school teacher, opened my eyes so much to what kind of writing teachers do. And as a student pursuing a career as a teacher, I found this information incredibly valuable. I never knew how much writing teachers do and for a variety of purposes and audiences.
The kinds of writing that Mrs. Chiolan does ranges from the everyday simple email, to children evaluations, and everything in between. During the summers, she writes out her lesson plan for the school year and revised them from time to time during the year. Mrs. Chiolan also writes her own tests for certain subjects. Along with writing the plans and tests, she writes letters to parents and comments on report cards. She then jokingly told me that the worst kind of writing that she does is write up slips when children misbehave. I had to agree with her on that. She said that she luckily doesn’t have to write those on the daily though. On the average day, she usually writes emails and little reminders to herself about things that happened during the day or what is happening tomorrow.
The purposes for which Mrs. Chiolan writes surprised me a bit. I assumed that teachers wrote for planning purposes, like the lesson plans. I also knew they wrote for communication purposes. She told me that writing is a fantastic tool to keep in touch with the principle, other teachers, and parents. But I did not think about the fact that teachers use writing to show progress in students. Evaluations and report cards are both extremely important forms of writing that teachers do. It is a clear way to show a child’s growth over the year and I didn’t even take that into consideration.
The audiences that Mrs. Chiolan writes for is vast. She has to know how to write in a way that children will understand. Using very simple and clear sentences for tests and on the board is more challenging than you may think she informed me. You have to make sure that they will be able to understand what they’re reading. Also, writing to parents and principles takes a more formal writing style. With all of these audience, a teacher has to master ways to write to all of them. It sounds trickier than I originally thought.
Mrs. Chiolan told me that writing was always a passion of hers. So when she gets the chance to put her words on paper, it is thrilling. She even told me that she was an English major in college for a little while. I never knew that she enjoyed writing so much and it really made me think about how much I enjoy writing too.
The research article that Mrs. Chiolan told me that she admired was one that she read recently. It’s about students who struggle with reading and why. The article also suggests ways to improve a child’s reading, like read-alouds. She stumbled upon it while she was looking on Google for ways to help her student’s reading skills and found that this article was quite helpful and interesting.
After my interview with Mrs. Chiolan, I realized that a lot more writing goes into teaching than I thought. I now know that it is an area that I need to be strong in if I want to be successful in the education field. I will be writing for a multitude of purposes, like planning, communication, and evaluation. As well as for a number of audiences, like students, parents, and co-workers and bosses. I am inspired by Mrs. Chiolan and all that she does and I hope that one day I can be as good of a teacher, and a writer, as she is.